1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable timepiece, such as a wristwatch or a pocket watch, in which an armor case of a timepiece armor assembly forms a one-piece structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a wristwatch in which an armor case is a one-piece structure, since the timepiece armor assembly does not have a case back, it is advantageous to provide a design in which a peripheral part back face side of the timepiece armor assembly is tapered, thereby visually showing a periphery part of the timepiece armor assembly thinly.
In the wristwatch of this kind, similarly to the wristwatch having the case back, for a repair and the like there is provided a contrivance for removing a movement interlock axle such as winding stem from a timepiece movement in the armor case.
As the contrivance of this kind, hitherto, a setting lever is rotatably supported to a setting lever axle having been attached to a main plate of the timepiece movement, and one end part of a lever for setting lever is provided while being overlapped to this setting lever. The other end part of the lever for setting lever protrudes in a planar form from an external shape of a dial of the timepiece movement, and is disposed in an annular interstice having been formed between a peripheral edge of the dial and an annular face opposed to a dial peripheral face of an edge member that an armor cover has. The other end part of this lever for setting lever is covered by an edge member having supported a glass of the timepiece armor assembly, and exposed so as to be operable by removing the edge member. And, by pressing down the other end part of the exposed lever for setting lever from a front face side of the timepiece armor assembly toward a back face side by a tweezers or the like, it is possible to move the setting lever following upon the lever for setting lever is slanted. By a movement of the setting lever at this time, its stopper part is disengaged from an engagement part of the winding stem, and retention of the winding stem is released. Accordingly, under this state, it is possible to pull out the winding stem through a crown (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent No. 3213892 Gazette (paragraphs 0002-0005, FIG. 1-FIG. 6)).
Hitherto, besides this, there is known a contrivance in which an engagement/disengagement operation body having an advance/retreat member moved in a thickness direction of the timepiece armor assembly by a rotation operation is provided in a case bottom wall of the armor case of one-piece structure, a movable axle generally referred to as a setting lever pin is interlocked with the advance/retreat member, and an engagement member having been generally referred to as the lever for setting lever and supported to the movable axle is moved. In this contrivance, by moving the advance/retreat member from the back face side of the timepiece armor assembly toward the front face side, since a stopper part of the engagement member can be removed from a groove of the winding stem, under this state it is possible to pull out the winding stem through the crown (e.g., refer to JP-A-2005-265755 Gazette (paragraphs 0018-0041, FIG. 1-FIG. 7)).
In a technique of the Patent Document 1, in which it is necessary to protrude the other end part, that is an operation part of the lever for setting lever, in the planar form from the external shape of the dial, there is such a problem that, unless an external shape of the timepiece armor assembly is made large, a size (parting diameter) of the dial undergoes a restriction by the lever for setting lever.
In a technique of the Patent Document 2, which can improve such a problem, there is the following problem. That is, the engagement/disengagement operation body attached to the case bottom wall of the armor case of one-piece structure possesses an operation member accommodated in an accommodation hole penetrated through the case bottom wall in a thickness direction and rotation-operated from an outside, and the advance/retreat member rotation-stopped in the accommodation hole by being screwed to an upper part of the operation member and protruded upward in the armor case, and a waterproof gasket ensuring a waterproofness in the accommodation hole is attached to the operation member.
Therefore, to a length of the operation member, there is added by a dimension for ensuring the waterproofness, in other words, a thickness dimension of the waterproof gasket. And, a height dimension of the accommodation hole of the case bottom wall accommodating this operation member is determined by considering, besides for the length of the operation member, a stroke dimension of the advance/retreat member, and the accommodation hole is formed by a height having complied with an accumulation of such dimensions. By this, since a thickness of the case bottom wall becomes comparatively thick, it is disadvantageous in sufficiently bringing about an advantage that the armor case is one-piece structure, in other words, an effect making the design visually showing the periphery part of the timepiece armor assembly thinly.
Additionally, in a self-winding wristwatch, an oscillating weight whose planar shape is approximately a ginkgo's leaf for instance is attached to a bottom face part of the timepiece movement and, by the fact that it is rotated about a vertical axle, there is obtained an energy driving the timepiece movement. In the wristwatch like this, in order to avoid an interference between the advance/retreat member of the engagement/disengagement operation body and the oscillating weight, it is necessary to dispose the engagement/disengagement operation body in a region deviated from a rotation locus of the oscillating weight, in other words, a position nearer to a case barrel part of the armor case. Accordingly, since a site in which a wall thickness of the case bottom wall is thick is approached to the case barrel part, it is disadvantageous in sufficiently bringing about the effect making the design visually showing the periphery part of the timepiece armor assembly thinly.